LAURA: Little articles of [glass], they’re ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie! Here’s an example of one, if you’d like to see it! . . . Oh, be careful—if you breathe, it breaks! . . . You see how the light shines through him? JIM: It sure does shine! LAURA: I shouldn’t be partial, but he is my favorite one. JIM: What kind of a thing is this one supposed to be? LAURA: Haven’t you noticed the single horn on his forehead? JIM: A unicorn, huh? —aren’t they extinct in the modern world? LAURA: I know! JIM: Poor little fellow, he must feel sort of lonesome.
It is introduced to us that the glass menagerie is a representation for Laura herself. Laura warns Jim about the effortlessness with which the glass figurines might be broken and shows him the wonderful visions produced when they are held up to the right sort of light. By doing this, she is basically describing herself: exquisitely delicate but glowing under the right circumstances. The glass unicorn, Laura’s favorite figurine, symbolizes her even more particularly. The unicorn is different from any ordinary horses, just as Laura is different from other people. In fact, the unicorn is so unusual a creature that Jim himself at first has trouble recognizing it. Unicorns are “extinct in the modern world,” and similarly, Laura is ill-adapted for survival in the world in which she lives.
JIM: Aw, aw, aw. Is it broken? LAURA: Now it is just like all the other horses. JIM: It’s lost its— LAURA: Horn! It doesn’t matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!
After persuading Laura to dance with him, Jim accidentally bumps the table on which the glass unicorn is placed upon, breaking the horn off of the figurine. The accident with the unicorn foreshadows his mistreatment of Laura, as he soon breaks her heart by announcing that he is engaged. Just as Jim’s awkward advances make Laura seem and feel like an ordinary girl, his clumsy dancing turns her beloved unicorn into an ordinary horse. Nevertheless, Laura is cheerful about the change, claiming that the unicorn should be happy to feel like less of an oddball, just as she herself is for the time being happy because Jim’s interest in her makes her feel like less of an outcast.
"She lives in a world of her own—a world of little glass ornaments.”
Laura lives in a fantasy world of her own creation. Like the glass menagerie, this fantasy world is dangerously delicate. Because direct contact with the real world threatens to shatter Laura’s fantasies, she is terrified of any contact with reality. Although, it is not only Laura that lives in a fantasy world, Amanda and Tom also live to some extent in fantasy worlds—Amanda in the past and Tom in movies and literature.
Quotes
JIM: It sure does shine!
LAURA: I shouldn’t be partial, but he is my favorite one.
JIM: What kind of a thing is this one supposed to be?
LAURA: Haven’t you noticed the single horn on his forehead?
JIM: A unicorn, huh? —aren’t they extinct in the modern world?
LAURA: I know!
JIM: Poor little fellow, he must feel sort of lonesome.
It is introduced to us that the glass menagerie is a representation for Laura herself. Laura warns Jim about the effortlessness with which the glass figurines might be broken and shows him the wonderful visions produced when they are held up to the right sort of light. By doing this, she is basically describing herself: exquisitely delicate but glowing under the right circumstances. The glass unicorn, Laura’s favorite figurine, symbolizes her even more particularly. The unicorn is different from any ordinary horses, just as Laura is different from other people. In fact, the unicorn is so unusual a creature that Jim himself at first has trouble recognizing it. Unicorns are “extinct in the modern world,” and similarly, Laura is ill-adapted for survival in the world in which she lives.
LAURA: Now it is just like all the other horses.
JIM: It’s lost its—
LAURA: Horn! It doesn’t matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!
After persuading Laura to dance with him, Jim accidentally bumps the table on which the glass unicorn is placed upon, breaking the horn off of the figurine. The accident with the unicorn foreshadows his mistreatment of Laura, as he soon breaks her heart by announcing that he is engaged. Just as Jim’s awkward advances make Laura seem and feel like an ordinary girl, his clumsy dancing turns her beloved unicorn into an ordinary horse. Nevertheless, Laura is cheerful about the change, claiming that the unicorn should be happy to feel like less of an oddball, just as she herself is for the time being happy because Jim’s interest in her makes her feel like less of an outcast.
Laura lives in a fantasy world of her own creation. Like the glass menagerie, this fantasy world is dangerously delicate. Because direct contact with the real world threatens to shatter Laura’s fantasies, she is terrified of any contact with reality. Although, it is not only Laura that lives in a fantasy world, Amanda and Tom also live to some extent in fantasy worlds—Amanda in the past and Tom in movies and literature.
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